
the SCENE
May 13, 2021
24 25
Random People
by Cameron Ekstrand
Danica Setka
Freshman
Major: Environmental Biology and
Environmental Policy
Danica participated in this interview
from Japan, where her father is current-
ly stationed in the military. She loves to
bake and play tennis, and spends some
of her free time working for a website.
When asked who the three people she
would want to have a conversion with
would be, she answered Bill Nye, Gor-
don Ramsey, and Harry Styles because
“the vibes in that room with all three of
them would be insane.”
CE: Tell me about what it’s like living
abroad.
DS: My dad was stationed in Ja-
pan right before my Junior year in
high school and I’ve been stuck here
since. I wasn’t ready to go back to
the states given the condition they’re
currently in, so I’m just doing re-
mote asynchronous class for now.
CE: What are some other countries
you’ve lived in?
DS: e only other country I’ve lived
in, not including the US, was Germa-
ny. I lived there fourth through sixth
grade and it was very cool, I liked it
a lot.
CE: What was it like growing up with
a parent in the military and moving
around a lot?
DS: It was prey tough. When you
move every two years, you have to
adapt to a new environment real-
ly quickly just to get taken out of it.
Making new friends at all these dif-
ferent schools became challenging
and I had to learn to be really adapt-
able to have a good school experi-
ence. On the ip side, moving around
and seeing a bunch of dierent plac-
es, seeing historical sites and all, has
made me a more well-rounded and
cultured person.
CE: What was high school like on a
military base?
DS: I went to high school on base.
Just the kids of people in the military,
so Americans, and then the kids of
Japanese contractors that work on
the base went there too. It was a real-
ly small, tight knit community, lots of
school spirit.
CE: What was it like playing tennis in a
military high school?
DS: I played JV my rst two year of
high school when I was in the States.
In Japan, I was on varsity for both
Back in the 1980s, when cell phones were obsolete, staers of e Scene would ip through the now extinct WashU phone-
book, jabbing their ngers down sporadically onto the pages. Whomever the nger revealed underneath would be dialed, in-
terviewed, and featured in the upcoming issue of the magazine. ey could’ve been a genius, a bum, the most interesting girl
in Olin, or the dullest dude on the South 40. It didn’t maer. e randomness was the point. Jude and I knew we had to keep
this tradition running when we rebooted, but without an ocial phonebook for the school, we had to improvise. rough a
combination of random name generators, the online school directory, and command-F, we found our random peers, reached
out to them via email, and interviewed those willing about their lives. Who knows: if you’re lucky, maybe your rst name and
last initial will be spat out by the generator for the next edition. A lot of people didn’t respond though. Please respond if we
email you. It’s cool to be a part of this shit, even if you think you’re lame.
years. Last year, I got to go to Japan’s
version of Nationals where all the
military schools and international
schools send students to play in Oki-
nawa, another island o Japan, which
was super fun. en, in my very last
match of my high school career I ac-
tually pinched my sciatic nerve. I re-
ally ended o high school tennis with
a bang, because now I can’t play ten-
nis anymore. I can only play really
slow games now.
CE: What kind of work are you doing?
DS: I work for Brainly, if you’ve
heard of it. It’s like a homework help
site. When I was in middle school,
I became a volunteer moderator on
the site. A few years ago they brought
me on as an intern, and just this week
actually I got promoted to part-time,
so I make money now, which is cool.
I basically just manage the modera-
tion team and do a lot of recruitment
work. Our tagline is that it’s peer-
based learning. Other students can
answer questions but there are also
thousands of teachers and profes-
sionals on the site that go around and
answer questions. Moderators also
help answer questions.
CE: Tell me about how you got interest-
ed in environmental studies.
DS: My sophomore year in high
school I took AP Environmental Sci-
ence, not by choice, since AP Biology
and AP Chemistry weren’t oered at
my school that year, and it was the
last AP that t into my schedule. It
ended up being probably my favorite
class throughout high school. I had a
really great teacher and I thought the
topics were interesting.
CE: How has your rst semester of col-
lege been considering Covid and all?
DS: Kinda sad. I live on an Air Force
base, and there are probably ten
college students on the entire base.
Two of my senior year stay here too,
so we hang out, but I haven’t been
able to make any friends on campus
at WashU. In terms of my classes,
I would say 7/10. I’m doing okay, it
would probably be beer if I could
do them in person. I had to do on-
line school for my last semester of
high school so I was a bit used to it
already.
Pedro Gomez
Freshman
Major: PNP
Pedro has moved around a lot. Aer
being born in Florida, he moved to Vir-
ginia, spent a few years in Puerto Rico,
and then most recently lived in Colom-
bia. He then studied abroad in Beijing
and got rst hand experience of what
it’s like to live in China during a pan-
demic.
CE: How did you get interested In
PNP?
PG: I’ve always been really interest-
ed in science classes. In high school
I had this opportunity to have what
was basically an internship at a hos-
pital, and we were put in rotations,
working with dierent areas of the
hospital. e most interesting parts
for me were the psychiatry and
neuroscience sections. I also loved
my psychology classes during high
school, so everything on my resume
was pushing me towards PNP.
CE: What was it like growing up in dif-
ferent countries?
PG: It was a really great experience
overall. It can be tough, because, you
know, you make friends, you have
to leave them, but it’s been really
great geing to know dierent plac-
es. Growing up in dierent countries
really gives you a much more expan-
sive, deeper world view. You can use
your experiences in dierent places,
and compare them to make inter-
esting connections and learn more
about dierent cultures and places,
which I personally really like.
CE: How has the transition from China
to St. Louis been aer having lived in
Colombia prior?
PG: Since I have experience living
abroad by myself, it wasn’t that tough
for me. It’s much easier for me to
adapt to dierent places. It’s the rst
time I’ve lived in the US since grow-
ing up in Virginia when I was really
lile. It’s been cool geing to know St.
Louis because I’ve never been to the
midwest before. In terms of meeting
people, with Covid and all, it’s prey
tough. I’m enrolled in the Rodriguez
Scholarship Program, so I’ve been
making close friends with the other
people in that program, which has
been super helpful. It would’ve been
much tougher if it weren’t for that
program. Right now I see the same
people everyday in class so I can
form deeper connections with them.
CE: What was living in China like
during Covid?
PG: It was super fascinating. I was
living in Beijing, which is an insane-
ly government run city. e govern-
ment literally controls everything
over there; you can see all the sur-
veillance and military presence. I was
there during my rst semester in the
fall of 2019 and aer that was when
Covid hit. I was able to see all the